Tuesday, 28 September 2010

The Van Jets are a Belgian band that I first saw on Rock Werchter earlier this year. Over there they already made it to the main stage although as opening act. But here they are still relatively unknown and so they were playing the small Paradiso stage. Although I really wanted to see more of them I didn't get tickets since I would be seeing them at the Crystal Ball party the next day. Fortunately for me I won tickets to their show thanks to alternative.blog.nl. The Van Jets at Paradiso Amsterdam, September 23 2010 (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)When we get to small Paradiso room 10 minutes before the gig there is hardly anyone there. Maybe most people are checking out a bit of Lifehouse on the main stage to kill time. We decide to do so as well but are glad that we only get to see two songs. It still doesn't get really crowded but the Belgian band doesn't get discouraged and immediately kick off with their modest hit 'The Future'. From then on they take us on a tour through their repertoire that shows a variety of styles: garage rock, pop, glam rock, it's all there.

Front man Johannes Verschaeve is a charismatic singer that seeks interaction with the crowd regularly. In the beginning that doesn't lead to a lot of response so he asks everyone to move up closer to the stage. The band plays a convincing set and gradually win most people over. Even some of the Lifehouse fans that decided to take a peek at this gig as well after their show was finished . They already won me over at Rock Werchter but this time I was even more impressed. A song like 'Matador' is so different from the Bowie cover 'Fashion' but they still manage to give it their own sound. Despite the small crowd they are still willing to do an encore. Immediately after the show they sign their albums and are chatting with fans. This band deserves to be so much bigger than they have been so far. Hopefully they can win more people over in the future. That shouldn't be a problem when they keep on playing these great rock shows.